Monday, August 12, 2013

On fine print

“Always read the fine print.” With
its definite article serving at once to distance and to universalize the practice,
the old adage is deemed fair warning. And yet fine print asks specifically not
to be read. It is a deliberately non-communicative speech act, erasing itself
by miniaturization, accumulation, and esotericism….

Magritte is said to be pointing out
the unbridgeable divide between representation and reality. His painted pipe is
not an actual pipe. Contracts and (particularly) advertisements that use fine
print operate on a similar level. The ad’s loudly stated, carefully worded
attractions are representations of a proposed deal, the legitimacy of which the
fine print discretely disavows. “This is not the deal,” the fine print says. On
the subject of Magritte’s painting, Foucault speaks of an “operation cancelled
as soon as performed,” a line that might as easily apply to advertising that
offers deals too good to be true. Foucault’s second reading of The Treachery of Images is a little
subtler. He suggests that what the sentence “ceci n’est pas une pipe” actually
refers to is itself: “this is not a pipe” is not a pipe. In recent years it has
become common for fine print to include “unilateral amendment provisions” that
entitle the company to change the terms of the deal at anytime as long as they
give you written notice. In such cases, the fine print is also referring to
itself when it whispers “this is not the deal.”

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